To be the final team knocked out of the playoffs isn’t a terrible spot to be in, even if it may be heartbreaking at the time. The Angels were a largely forgotten team this year with the Mariners (the consensus pick going into the season), the Astros’ early and the Rangers’ late success stealing the storylines. Even so, they finished just a game behind Houston for the second Wild Card and three games behind the Rangers for the AL West crown.
Preseason Prediction: This Los Angeles Angels team probably isn’t quite as good as last year’s team and last year’s team wasn’t a true talent 98-win team. Still, the talent is pretty close, it might even swing in the other direction if Heaney can realize his potential right off the bat. There’s little reason not to expect the Halos to make a strong run at repeating as the division champ in the much-improved AL West. Even if they don’t take the division title, they should be in excellent position to snag a Wild Card spot. (Garrett Wilson, March 6th)
What Went Right: The Angels essentially have the best power bat in all of baseball in the new millennium and the top all around player that is currently active in their lineup every single day. In addition, they have had three solid starters all seasons in Garrett Richards, Hector Santiago, and C.J. Wilson (with Andrew Heaney coming up huge and picking up the slack slightly before and after Wilson was injured and pulled for the rest of the season) and a closer who has been consistently great every year since 2009 in Huston Street. Legitimately, the Angels should have been a run scoring and preventing machine simply based on their roster.
TORONTO, CANADA – MAY 19: Matt Joyce #20 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim reacts after grounding out in the fifth inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays on May 19, 2015 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
What Went Wrong: Outside of Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and to a lesser degree Kole Calhoun, the Angels were not that run scoring machine. Despite having Trout and Pujols combine for 81 home runs, they scored just 661 runs on the season, 20th in baseball, 12th in the AL. The offense was so bad that at the break, they looked for fixes everywhere they could find them, trading for Shane Victorino, David Murphy, David DeJesus, and Conor Gillaspie to bolster the offense.
None of these provided a real solution, although Murphy did play better than expected with five home runs and 23 RBI in 43 games and some players who started the year with the team were even worse. Chris Iannetta, Taylor Featherston, and Matt Joyce finished the year with more than 90 games played and an average under .200. With no one getting on at the bottom of the lineup, it isn’t that surprising that neither Trout nor Pujols were able to reach the arbitrarily coveted 100 RBI plateau.
The Angels did manage to win nine of their last 12 games, including a huge comeback win in the second to last game of the season, to stay within the race, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the early season offensive issues.
ANAHEIM, CA – SEPTEMBER 29: Albert Pujols #5 of the Los Angeles Angels reacts to his run in front of Pat Venditte #29 of the Oakland Athletics to take a 7-1 lead during the fifth inning at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on September 29, 2015 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
Most Surprising Player: This could be Heaney, but he was a top prospect when the Dodgers picked him up in the Dee Gordon deal and subsequently sent him to the Angels for Howie Kendrick. There’s no surprise in their other top pitchers either, they were good or even better last year and the only surprise with Trout is that he is probably going to lose the MVP to Josh Donaldson, not fight in a dead heat with Miguel Cabrera.
Honestly, the biggest surprise could be Pujols, the aforementioned best player since 2000. While he has always been incredible (he now has 14 of 15 seasons with at least 25 HR, 90 RBI, 80 R, 20 2B and a WAR over 2.5, and usually had much more of all those things), he did have one season with none of those things and it was just two years ago in 2013. While it looked like his career could be ending, he came back late in 2014 to finish 17th in the MVP voting and had his best season from a home run stand point since joining the Angels in 2012. While he has slowed and he batted just .244 this year, he still played in 157 games and without him, the Angels would have had an extremely hard time scoring at all this year outside of the 41 times that Trout drove himself in.
SEATTLE, WA – SEPTEMBER 16: Starting pitcher Jered Weaver #36 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim leaves the field after being ejected for hitting Kyle Seager of the Seattle Mariners in the fifth inning at Safeco Field on September 16, 2015 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
Most Disappointing Player: It may be forgotten, but the Angels paid Josh Hamilton more than $20M to not play for them this season and will do so again for each of the next two seasons. He was traded away before playing a game in Anaheim this season for cash after a relapse cost him the beginning of the season. To make matters worse, Hamilton hit home runs to help the Rangers win two pivotal games in August that helped them surpass the Astros and take the West lead. Hamilton also delivered a huge RBI single on Sunday to help end the Angels’ season.
Since he was never really on the Angels this year, it is fair to tab Jered Weaver as the team’s actual most disappointing player. He was paid nearly $20M this year and will be paid more than that next season after being the or one of the best pitchers on the staff for years. He is now 32, however, and every season since he finished second in the Cy Young race in 2011 both his ERA and FIP have risen. This year was by far the worst in his career, pitching just 159 innings in 26 starts with a 4.64 ERA, 4.82 FIP and career low 5.1 K/9. With Wilson out with ankle surgery, this essentially left the Angels without two of their expected top starters this year.
ANAHEIM, CA – SEPTEMBER 27: Mike Trout #27 of the Los Angeles Angels celebrates his run with C.J. Cron #24 to tie the score 1-1 with the Seattle Mariners during the fourth inning at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on September 27, 2015 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
The Future: Luckily for LA, the majority of departing free agents were those mentioned in the what went wrong section, particularly Joyce, Ianetta along with extremely late addition Mat Latos and the consistently decent David Freese. Unfortunately, they owe the already mentioned $20M to Weaver in 2016 and more than $81M to just four players (Weaver, Trout, Pujols and Wilson). While one of these players is definitely worth that value and two more could possibly near it, simply owing $10M more to four players (not including the $26M still owed to Hamilton for 2016) than the Astros paid their entire team this year will really hamstring any deals attempted this off-season.
Considering that the Astros were expected to have a great team by 2016 and have just performed better than expected early on, that the Mariners played far below expectations and should be much better next year and that the Rangers were better than all of these down the stretch this year, the Angels will likely have much trouble being even as successful as they were this year in the coming seasons.
